How women are calling out the sexism in Super Bowl ads

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You might have heard that yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday: the day where millions and millions of Americans tune into the championship final of the National Football League. It’s the event where artists like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Pink entertain the crowd before, during and after the game.

It’s the broadcast where the average cost of advertising is $5 million for a single 30 second spot. It’s the holy grail in television advertising and for the past few years The 3% Conference, the movement which is focused on females comprising far more than 3% of creative directors in advertising, have hosted a parallel event: A Super Bowl Tweetup.

How do you know if we’re #notbuyingit during the #SuperBowl ? Apply the 3% Test. What’s the 3% Test? So glad you asked.

1. Is there a woman? 2. Is she defying stereotypes? 3. Is she the hero? #3percentsb

Women exercise most of the purchasing power in the US but advertisers still cater – largely – to men. Unsurprisingly, female appeal doesn’t seem to be a focus point for many making the Super Bowl ads and thanks to #3percentsb this did not – and will not – go unnoticed.

The fact there were more dinosaurs as leads than women? Disappointing.

Judging by the volume of tweets shared using the #3percentsb hashtag females – creatives and consumers – are all too happy to call out the gender disparity in advertising. Where most ads were aimed towards men, women wanted to call it out.

On Twitter Cindy Gallop, a prolific and ferociously committed advocate for gender equality, asked whether the powers that be in advertising had missed the memo about #MeToo, #TimesUp and even #3percentsb.

“Anybody who doesn’t realize that it is time to abandon the old world order and be part of the new is going to get run over in the wake,” she said recently.

Georgina is a journalist, an editor, and a passionate advocate for gender equality. The former lawyer is a regular media commentator, public speaker, MC and is the contributing editor of Women's Agenda.